When two or more people want to share the cost of a purchase, apportioning the cost between them can be problematic, especially when one or more of them wants to pay by credit card. Consider, for example, the situation in which a social group gathers for a meal at a restaurant, where everyone is to pay for his or her own food and drink. When it comes time to pay the check, the need to determine how much each person owes and settle the bill creates an inconvenient and sometimes awkward interruption in the social interaction of the group. Making this process go smoothly can be a challenge, even more so if the group includes a mixture of single people and couples or families.
There are various ways of handling this kind of situation. For example, in one common approach, one member of the group uses a credit card, and the other members of the group reimburse that person with cash for their portions. With this approach, it is inconvenient and often time-consuming to have to calculate how much each person (or each couple or family) owes and then collect cash from the other members of the group. Additionally, it is common that some members of the group end up paying more or less than their fair share (with the person who paid by credit card often paying more than his fair share). In another common approach, the group asks the waiter to split the check in a certain manner, and everyone then either pays cash or uses his own credit card. This approach can also be troublesome if the check is not being split equally, and regardless, it is inconvenient and time-consuming for the waiter. In any of these situations, the need to deal with these issues detracts from the social atmosphere of the event.